One year on Friday!

From: Elder Morgan Miller (elder.miller@myldsmail.com)

Well first off, Happy Birthday Grandpa!
Mom, thanks for the package. I loved it. It came in one week - Monday to Monday, or sooner. Pretty amazing! I loved the treats. I already used some of the chocolate chips. On exchanges with Elder Mcbride in Fuenlabrada yesterday, we made a batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to take to people. Thanks for the gmail account and all of the help with that stuff. Thanks for the tape. I loved it.
We have started to close the window at night, and just use the fan inside. It still is just fine, but before it kept it nice and cold inside. No more bug bites though.
Poor Evan on the hot, hot roof picking apricots! Where was Grandpa?
I bet he would be overjoyed to be doing that for his birthday.
First off, this last week was awesome! We had Summer Slam on Friday and Saturday from morning until 4 or 5 each day. We would start with our coaches meeting, and go over the schedule so we all understood the game plan. It consisted of a 1 hour shoot around as campers showed up. Over all we had 176 campers, and our goal was 170. Our goal of member campers in that 176 was 100. There were 105 members. Then to have 70 investigators was our goal, and you can see that the remaining 71 helped us complete that other goal. Well, now we commence with teaching part of the camp after it’s over. Last year there were almost 30 baptisms from it. It was amazing, and I absolutely loved it.
We would do some intro. things like dribble knockout, and knockout/lightening/speed/dynamite/shoot faster than the other person. There are a million names for that same game, but it was with 2 hoops and 2 huge, huge lines. The youth loved it. Then the males would commute to the Polideportivo, which had 8 hoops, and the women would stay there at the Stake Center. We would do skills, practices, drills and stuff like that in 6 groups, and then we would do Round Robin play with each coach having one team. It was awesome. They split it up into 16 and over and 15 and younger. I had a 15 and younger team both days that was amazing. I had one same kid both days who was tall enough to play with the older kids, and then one boy I had and was taller than most of the older kids. It was a blast rallying the troops and helping them play better as a team and individually. It was a blast with both teams, and we won all the games the first day and lost one the second day to two huge Twin Towers. It was just amazing. We had great opportunities to talk with the youth and get to know them, and they were able to visit the Temple grounds, hear testimonies from youth that were members, missionaries and our Mission President. It was just an awesome idea, and it was just splendid to be a part of it.
The scripture of the day is Mosiah 18:8-10. That is because of the next event which was Sunday. Francisca Alejandra Sandoval Martínez was baptized. It was amazing! Everything fell into place. The program came together with the help of the Ward Mission Leader’s dad, and the clothing just appeared. I honestly don’t know where they came from. Francisca had some clothes, a dress and white shirt, but then she came out in a white jump suit. I guess the ward had some hiding somewhere, or something, but it just worked out. The water in the font heated alright, and was full 10 minutes before the baptism. 50 of the 98 members at church stayed for the baptism, including a choir of Primary children. Elder Sewell gave an awesome testimony, and then the baptism was just surreal. I baptized her, and it was such a privilege. She was confirmed by Estalin from the Bishopric and Elder Sewell, and I were in the circle with him. It was just amazing. Francisca’s mother and sister, and then her father, all bore amazing testimonies. Before, they were too scared to do it, and didn’t want to, but it just was amazing to hear them. They talked about their conversion in Chile and the missionaries there, and then the missionaries, here bringing them back with the help of Francisca. It was the best day ever! I was soooooooo happy. We had cake and snacks afterwards, and it was awesome as well, and then we went to the Jabonero’s for lunch. It was lasagna, just delicious. They feed us every other Sunday and the other elders on the Sundays we aren’t there. They are awesome.
Monday was the Mission Council which was at the Stake Center. We had some amazing lessons and great discussions about this next transfer. We have interviews this coming Tuesday at the Mission Home which is in San Sebastian, just near Alcobendas. We will be presenting about the Book of Mormon and the questions of the soul it answers. The assistants are presenting about Area Books, and then afterwards we will be having a barbeque. Yep, you read it right, a bbq. I am soooo, soooo, soooo excited as is with the whole mission!
We are in Summer Schedule now, so instead of our getting up at 7 and going to bed at 11 at night, we get up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. This is to accommodate the culture here, and the people’s habits. It gives us an extra 30 minutes to teach the investigators at night, when they can be taught. So it is just awesome. Then a thing we have tomorrow is piso checks by President and Hermana Farnsworth. They are checking every piso in the mission this transfer. So we will be doing some preparation-day scrubbing and cleaning and spiffing up the piso today.
We will see how this next week goes. Last week was amazing, and I hope more of the same this next week. I had an awesome exchange in Fuenlabrada with Elder McBride. It was way awesome to go back to Talavera again and then also to Fuenlabrada. We were able to go and teach Miriam the Spainard woman with the Nigerian husband. They own a locutorio together and are trying to sell the locutorio. They seem to be doing amazing. She is still smoking, but I think can quit in the near future. She has much more self esteem now that she has lost 20 kilos. She is doing awesome. I also got to see her son Owen. It was a great visit, and we were able to go by some people we used to be teaching and find some great potential there in Fuenlabrada.
Well, that’s all for this week, but thanks for everything, and I will write back next week. Hope all goes well.
Much love from Spain, and more specificly, Móstoles.
Well have a great week, and send me an email when you have a second.

Love,
Elder Miller